An International Oil Company's (IOC) Development Projects Overview

Abstract

Shell's E&P journey in Brazil started back in the seventies when 23 risk services contracts were executed for the exploration in nine onshore and offshore basins. Between the mid-seventies and late nineties, more than 30 wells were drilled on 13 blocks. Almost US$ 400 milion spent on seismic and drilling. This paper presents an overview of field development from the early days to the present. Between the late seventies and early eighties the discovery of Merluza gas field, in the Santos basin, and other non-commercial discoveries were made. The Merluza development started in the late eighties and was handed over to Petrobras for operation in 1993. The scope considered an offshore platform, subsea infrastructure, wells, gas pipeline to shore and an onshore gas unit. The Bijupirá & Salema fields, located in the Campos basin, 250 km east of Rio de Janeiro, in water depths between 480 and 880 m, were discovered by Petrobras in 1990 and included in bid round zero. Shell joined the Venture as the operator through the acquisition of Enterprise Oil in 2002 and production started in 2003. It was the first IOC operated development in Brazil with eight producers and six water injection wells. A re-development project resulted in four additional wells with first oil in 2013. The BC-10 Parque das Conchas deepwater development, also from bid round zero and in Campos basin, is a combination of several distinct small to mid-size fields that allow for phasing. The fields are off the coast of Brazil in about 1800m water depth. This series of successfully phased projects started with the deployment of the Espirito Santo FPSO, 11 wells and subsea boosting equipment in Phase 1 which came on-stream in July 2009. Phase 2 followed on-stream in October 2013 with an additional 11 wells (including 4 water injectors), subsea boosting equipment, and brownfield topsides upgrades on the FPSO. The Phase 3 investment has already added another 7 wells (including 2 water injectors) and will come on-stream in early 2016, after the subsea and topsides scopes are completed.